“No, querida, I’m not serious.” He laughed, and Addie froze. It was a real laugh. A laugh borne of amusement, like they’d shared all the time, back in London.
She swallowed, the moment touching something deep down inside of her. “But pirates did die in here?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
“And that didn’t freak you out?”
He laughed again. “No. It fascinated me.”
A shiver ran down Addie’s spine. “You’re more adventurous than I was as a child. The only adventures I went on were in the pages of books. I loved reading about Middle Earth but I had no desire to leave the safety of my lounge room and find my own quest.”
Guy nodded, but there was something in his expression that spoke of his resentment, that reminded her this truce was very temporary. That they were enemies, locked in a battle she wanted no part of.
She could feel their easy camaraderie slipping and she moved hastily to recapture it. “You didn’t answer me,” the words were husky. “About your father?”
A muscle jerked in his jaw, and she wondered if he was going to ignore her. To refuse to respond, but then, he nodded slowly. “My father never had any interest in the business.”
“No?” Addie smiled, trying to coax him back to a place of confiding. “Isn’t it in your blood?”
Guy’s eyes landed on hers, dark brown clashing with caramel, and Addie’s breath locked in her throat. Her lips parted on a small exhalation.
“In mine, seguro. And Santiago’s. But my father is like my grandmother. Cerebral. Intellectual. Timid.”
“Carlos? Timid?” Addie clarified.
“Not in social situations, but in business. He lacks the instincts that are necessary, perhaps because he wasn’t interested in sharpening them.” Guy shrugged. “The corporation should not be a noose. It is large enough that it can operate with paid executives, outside the family. I work at it because it is my passion; because, as you say, it is in my blood. But my father had every right to choose a different path for himself.”
“Of course he did.” Addie said softly, the water lapping around them in soft, gentle undulations. “What path did he choose?”
“He and my mother are art investors – world renowned. They sponsor several artists, enabling them to work when they otherwise would struggle. They have a galleria in Barcelona and one in Florence.”
“You never mentioned that before,” she said.
“It didn’t come up.” The tightness was back, the remembering of differences, pushing her away, even when their bodies were melded as one. “Put on your swimsuit, Ava. We should get back.”
“Why do you do that?” She asked softly, not moving away from him.
That same muscle jerked in his jaw, and she lifted a finger to it. His whole body tightened. “Do what?”
“Use that name?”
“It is the name you gave me,” he said with a dark undercurrent. “Why should I not use it?”
“Because I hate it,” she said softly, refusing to avoid his gaze even when the intensity of his probing stare was making her heart wobble. “You don’t know how much I came to loathe hearing it on your lips. How I ached to hear you call me Adeline instead.” Her eyes swept shut and she pulled in a breath. It was tainted by the thickness of the salty cave air. “Please, call me Adeline. Or Addie. Not Ava. Not when we’re alone.”
His smile was tight. Dismissive. And his eyes were ice-cold. “Let’s go.”
“Guy,” it was a softly issued word, but it held a challenge. “You’re pushing me away.”
His expression, if possible, tightened further. “How can I push you away, Ava? You are not close enough to me to require it.”
Her ears hummed the whole way back to the boat, as they swum side by side, her stride every bit a match to his, though she suspected he was swimming slower than usual to allow her to keep up with him. Addie wasn’t going slowly. She was tearing through the water, her mind racing, her heart pounding, her blood gushing hard through her body, tormenting her with its rapid infusion, her memory replaying his constant rejections like explosions of angry confetti, littering her consciousness with a reality she loathed to contemplate.
She’d bargained on Guy remembering all the reasons he had to love her, this week. She’d banked on their desire overcoming all the obstacles he was determined to keep in their way.
She hadn’t bargained on his determination to forget. His determination to keep her at arm’s length in all ways but one.
A white ladder ran down the side of the boat, and as they approached it, Guy reached for the bottom two steps and flicked them, so they fell lower, into the water, then turned to face Addie. “Remember, querida, so far as Santiago knows, there is nothing between us but love.”
Addie nodded, but it was a weary nod. How could she convince him? Remind him of what they’d once been? How could she make him understand?
“Guy,” she curved her fingertips over the lower rung, but hovered there, facing him, watching him thoughtfully. Water had turned her hair into a dark curtain that fell down her back and her eyes were a fierce, burning caramel, spiked by clumped, black lashes. Without makeup, without shields, she was completely herself before him. “Please, let me try to explain to you.”
His expression was an implacable mask; a physical rejection. “Explain then, Ava. Tell me why you spent a month in my bed, claiming to be an actress. Tell me why you lied to me again and again. Packed house tonight! I forgot a line, though.” His eyes narrowed and shame pinkened her cheeks. “You didn’t lie to me once, but again and again and again.”
“Once I’d started, I didn’t know how to stop. I just couldn’t…”
“Of course you could,” he denied firmly. “You could have told me the truth at any time. You let me continue calling you Ava, believing you to be every lie you told me. You say you loved me, but you did not know me. Not really.” His accent was thickened by the intensity of his mood, his Spanish vowels ringing with conviction. “Do I seem like a man who would forgive anyone this? Like a man who will accept such dishonesty and deceit?”
His words did something Addie hadn’t expected. She had been fighting him so hard, and now, something like acceptance began to work its way into her gut. Acceptance of the truth of what he said. How could she expect him to forgive her? Any other man might have been desperate to hear her apology and explanation, to allow her the space to make everything better. But not Guillem Rodriguez. He was as hard-headed as he was ruthless, as dictatorial as he was arrogant. She’d fallen in love with him without realizing that the man she loved would never accept her circumstances.
Wasn’t that why she’d carried on the lie? Once she’d realized who he was, how could she tell him of her financial situation? Of the mother who had gambled away a once-sizeable nest-egg? Of the fact she scrubbed office floors for a living? Her eyes prickled with tears but they were indiscernible amongst the ocean’s spray.
“No,” it was a whisper. “But I am sorry, Guy. And I wish… I wish you would see that I had no choice.”
He brought his face closer to hers then, and his dark eyes bore into her caramel ones. “We all of us have choices, Ava. Every moment of every day.” He lifted a finger to her bikini strap, straightening it but leaving his fingers to linger a moment on her soft, damp flesh. “I choose to enjoy your body, knowing that I will let you walk away at the end of this week with no regrets. I choose to enjoy this – you – sex, without thinking of what we seemed to be, at one time. I have let the past go, Adeline. You should too.”
She bit down on her lip to stop a sob from escaping. Hearing her name on his lips, for the first time, spun her insides around, filling her with a delicious, confusing pain, an ache that trembled low in her gut.
“Remember why you are here. You want money from me, and I want your acting skills to settle my grandfather’s worries with regards to my sex life.” He brought his face closer, so close that she could feel his breath against her cheeks. “End of discussion.”
Ad
die opened her mouth to say something, though she wasn’t sure exactly what, but Guy didn’t give her the opportunity. “Go on, Ava. Santiago will be wondering where we are.”
With a heart that was sinking, she climbed higher, each step wobbling, her face stricken as she finally reached the deck of the boat.
Santiago hadn’t been wondering where they were, in the end. He’d made himself perfectly comfortable, creating quite the nest for himself – newspapers spread wide, a pot of thick, black coffee to one side and a tray of sweet pastries the other, and he’d removed his shoes, so his bare feet were kicked out into a patch of sunshine on the deck.
“Ah!” He tilted his head when Addie stepped onto the boat, so she had only seconds to rally her face into an expression into what it should have been – that of a woman in love, on a blissful island with the man of her dreams.
“What did you think of the caves?”
Guy was right behind her; she could feel him. Not because he was touching her, but because there was an invisible pull between them, enough to make her insides throb just by being close.
“They were beautiful,” she said with a forced smile. “Enchanting.”
“Enchanting, yes,” Santiago’s eyes lingered on Addie’s face a moment and then he nodded his approval. “Come, eat.”
Addie had been starving only minutes earlier, but now, she couldn’t imagine eating. Her stomach was in knots. Still, she moved towards the table and took the seat opposite Santiago, her back to the island. The sea spread before her, turquoise and accented with gold streaks, formed by the sun’s vibrant reflection.
“Have something,” his invitation encompassed Addie and Guy.
Guy stood beside them, his body glistening with water, his frame bronzed, his muscles taut. Addie couldn’t look at him. Just the sight of him did funny things to her, and memories of how he’d moved inside of her were a torment.
“We should get back,” Guy’s words were clipped and Santiago noticed. He lifted his head to Guy, a small frown on his face.
“Why?”
“Mother will be worrying. You’re due at the theatre tonight.”
Santiago waved a dismissive hand in the air. “Do you know how long it’s been since I was on the water?”
“You can come out anytime,” Guy pointed out. “You just choose not to.”
“Not true,” Santiago said. “And it is only when you are here that I have the option, Guy, and you do not visit often.” His eyes flicked to Addie. Perhaps it was the realization still exploding inside of her, that trying to change Guy’s mind was like trying to pour oil up a hill, but Addie saw something in Santiago’s expression that reminded her of Guy. That made her wonder if they were all playing a part in this scenario.
“Though perhaps that will change now,” he said thoughtfully. “Ava will make you come.”
Guy shrugged his shoulders. “Perhaps.” He smiled at his grandfather. “I’ll take us back now.”
They both watched Guy as he walked down the deck, framed by the brilliant blue of the sky, his powerful body tense.
“He does not come here often,” Santiago said after a while.
“I didn’t realise that. I know he loves the island.”
“Yes, he does. But life, his work,” Santiago shrugged. “It is so important that he settle down, Ava. Don’t you agree?”
Ava’s insides were close to exploding. She nodded slowly, her eyes meeting his.
“I imagine you’ll have a short engagement,” Santiago leaned back in the chair, his eyes resting on the caves he could see over Addie’s shoulder. “You could announce it at the party.”
Addie’s eyes were huge in her pale face. “Engagement?” She stared at him in shock. “What engagement?”
Santiago’s eyes narrowed, and Addie was reminded, once more, of Guy. The older man was, in that moment, every bit as much the dictatorial CEO as his grandson. A shiver ran down her spine and she tried to remember the part she was playing. To remember that a woman in love would be delighted to be discussing the possibility of a permanent relationship.
“You do plan to marry him?”
Addie’s cheeks blushed and there was nothing forced about it. She smiled, but it was lopsided. “I… He hasn’t asked.”
Santiago frowned, his expression shifting. Doubt covered his face. “He hasn’t?”
“We’ve only been seeing one another a few months,” she said.
“Seven months,” Santiago corrected, reaching for a pastry and moving it between his long fingers thoughtfully. “He told me about you, the day after you’d met.” He lifted the pastry to his lips, biting into it so that Addie had to wait for him to finish the sentence. Her heart felt like it was filling up with all the water of the ocean, ripe to burst from her chest.
“Did he?” It was breathless. “What did he say?”
Santiago’s eyes darkened, and he shook his head. “Only that he’d met you.” It was a lie. Santiago was withdrawing. She had enough experience of Guy doing exactly that to know what it looked like. Only she could hardly rail against Santiago as she did Guy. She couldn’t plead with him to listen to her, to be honest with her.
She sighed softly and reached for her pastry. If you couldn’t beat them, you might as well join them.
*
“You told me you wanted to marry her,” Santiago’s words were gruff. Guy paused, just inside the door of the mansion. He could see his parents across the room. It was hardly the time nor place to have a heart-to-heart with his grandfather about the woman he’d paid to pretend to be his lover.
“Disculpe?”
“The day after you met her. You called me and told me you understood. That what I have always told you I felt for your grandmother you had finally felt for yourself.” Santiago’s eyes were earnest, locked to Guy’s with an intensity that Guy had to work overtime to ignore.
“So?” Guy was careful. He kept his expression neutral, his manner casual, when he was laced with a bitter regret at the foolish impulse that had allowed him to get so caught up in the rush of ‘being in love’. What an el burro he’d been!
“You are not a man to wait, Guillem. If you truly loved this woman, I believe you would have already married her.”
Guy’s chest felt like it was being compressed by a bag of cement. Hell, his grandfather was right. No one on earth knew Guillem like Santiago; had Guy really expected to be able to fool the old man so easily? To convince him he was madly in love when it was little more than a ruse? When he couldn’t stand Ava in any way other than physically?
Shame at the fact he’d even brought her to the island filled his belly.
“It does not work like that,” Guy aimed for an almost teasing tone to his voice. “It is normal to take time with someone before committing to marriage. To get to know one another inside out, perhaps live together, before becoming engaged”
Santiago’s eyebrows flew higher. “You do not live with her?”
From bad to worse. Guy forced a laugh, though it was heavy with his desire to be rid of this conversation. “Why are you worried?” Guy turned their exchange back to the root of Santiago’s worry. “You don’t like Ava?”
“Ava?” Santiago put a hand out, resting it on Guy’s forearm. “Ava I like. Ava is a woman clearly very much in love. But I worry you are going to let her get away. That you are going to let your past, your desire to have a rotating door on your bed, your love of excitement and the thrill of the chase, turn you away from taking what she would give you in a heartbeat.”
It was as though a tsunami had risen from the sea and was crashing hard against Guy, swallowing him into the depths of the ocean, making breathing difficult. Panic at the very idea of marrying Ava had to be the cause of it.
“I have Ava right where I want her,” Guy said seriously.
Santiago sighed, and weighed his words carefully. “You only think you do, son. Take it from an old man who has seen a lot in his life: you will regret it if you let her go.”
CHAPTER E
LEVEN
GUY DIDN’T RETURN TO the yacht until dusk, and he found Ava swimming in the water, her beautiful body bare, but for another tiny bikini. How many of these scraps of fabric had she brought with her?
He contemplated diving in, wrapping his body around hers, pulling her to him, making sense of their situation in the only way he could, as they had in the caves.
But he didn’t. He grabbed a beer from the kitchen, squeezed a wedge of lime into its narrow neck, and moved back to the rail, watching her without being watched.
Her stroke was long and elegant, her legs just barely breaking the surface of the water with each neat little kick. She swum as a mermaid, staying submerged for long stretches of time, so that he found a sense of panic arresting him every few minutes, along with a question of whether she needed to be saved. But then she lifted out of the water, her hair a pelt against her back, her face tilted towards the sky, all wet and silky. Only once did she look towards the boat; he fought an instinct to step back into the shadows.
It was not for Guy to hide from Ava. When she’d come to his house and begged him to ‘help’ her, he’d taken an inordinate amount of pleasure from seeing her squirm. It had seemed like just retribution.
Now, at the sight of her face crumpled with something he could only describe as sadness, the jubilation was gone. He felt … he wasn’t sure.
He didn’t like her. But once upon a time, he had thought he loved her, and hurting her seemed beneath him. This plan had been foolish in every single way. In attempting to put Santiago’s mind to rest, he had stirred up a host of new questions – questions he didn’t want to answer.
And he had discovered that he wasn’t as good at cutting cords as he had suspected.
They had two days left on the island, and then he would never see her again.
And though the thought of that did something strange to his gut, he refused to feel anything but relief. It had been a stupid plan, but it was almost through.
Whatever small part of him that wanted more from her, he wouldn’t abide by. In fact, he would delight in proving to himself that he could stick to his guns and send her away when it was time, no matter how tempted he might be to ask her to stay on in his life – as his mistress.
Blackmailed by the Spaniard Page 11